Have lurked here a bit but decided to finally respond - my son was invited off the Andover wait list about 10 days after initial decisions came out (sometime in late March). It was handled very strangely and, ultimately, he declined his offer of admission and decided to just attend the public school in our town. We are local (he would have been a day student) and I know of a couple of other kids who were asked off the wait list a few days after he was. Have no idea what happened on the boarding side.
@Thorsmom66 interesting. Could you elaborate on what strange about how it was handled?
He was only given 24 hours to commit although the actual deadline for decisions was more than a week away. It was a bit of a strong arm approach (and nothing in writing). I am friendly with several people who work at the school and they were stunned when I shared our experience. It seemed strange that there would be such urgency to fill these spots for a school that is so desirable and with such a high yield rate.
With COVID it is very difficult to project matriculation, as all of you know. Though I have no inside knowledge whatsoever, it wouldnât surprise me if the matriculation numbers at that time were trending below the same time in previous years, so the school projected a lower matriculation percentage overall, realized it might come up short given the number of acceptances, and so went to the wait list earlier than expected. Because anyone from Andoverâs wait list probably applied to other top schools, Andover wanted to work its list before the top of its wait list accepted offers from competitors. Therefore, Admissions didnât think it had time to wait long for a decision.
I reached out to my AO and she said that they are currently fully enrolled but will notify be if the situation changes.
I concur with @ameridad - they likely felt a time crunch and went the informal route as a result.
When colleges admit from the WL, students often have only 24 hours to verbally commit and around 3 days to pay a deposit. My understanding is that they only go further down the list if a student declines. Typically at this point in the process, they are filling seats exactly to capacity so they canât over accept. And they are quite specific in their needs. If there are 2 empty beds in the girls dorm. the WL offers are going to 2 girls. Not 3. Not boys.
I just came across this very lengthy thread and wonder: If a school says that the waitlisted student are NOT ranked, then how do its admission officers decide the priority as to who gets taken off the lists, other than perhaps gender (which affects dorm arrangements) or a particular sport or musical instrument? For example, they might need a female lacrosse player or a tenor sax player in the jazz band this year.
I understand that this is very much a black box, but would appreciate it if some members could share their knowledge. Thank you!
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@CarnegieDad: Your question is answered at length in this thread, and you donât have to go back too far. Search the thread for the word ârankâ or you may want to start with this post and this one which will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about how BS waitlists work.
The short answer is that WLs are there for the benefit of the schools, can be quite deep, are not used until a school finds itself underenrolled and, for the âtopâ schools, underenrollment rarely happens. When a school needs to go its WL, it will be to select an applicant who best matches the profile of a student who chose to matriculate elsewhere. For example, the open slot might be for a full-pay female day student who is an impact volleyballer. Basically, each BS crafts a class and uses the WL to fill very specific holes that occur between A10 and the start of the new school year. The selection is not based on ranking, but on best-matching.
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Iâd also add to @Choatiemomsâ accurate comments that the waitlist is rarely tapped. There are a LOT of kids who get on the waitlist at various schools and itâs pretty rare for a kid to get a slot. That is, unlike a college waitlist that can move by many kids, BSâs are generally small. You/your kid has to match the profile of the other kid and that is difficult.
I honestly think itâs kind of mean that they have this list. I think it would be best to reject the kid and reach out should they have a spot.
My oldest was distraught about a particular school and it went on for months. So distressing. We later got more information and there was no way any spots were going to open up. My kid filled a lot of buckets but that wasnât the issue. Not a single kid got off the list in those months.
If you are accepted to a BS, that is your option. Donât expect you will have others. Be happy. IF you are a parent, try to explain this to your child. Itâs hard when kids are 8th graders to understand how this works.
Now that my oldest is a Junior, s/he cannot believe they every considered the other school. It wasnât really well rounded and all of the opportunities would have been very different.
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Thank you. So my speculation on personal attributes (gender/skills, etc.) wasnât too far off. @ChoatieMom was insightful as always!
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The best piece of advice I was given, is the love the school that loves you. None of them are bad choices or you wouldnât have applied to them.
In my childâs case, they were WL at all schools. So we didnât have a school that loved us for us to love back. Applied again this yearâŠhoping for better results on M10
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@scruffylexi, fingers crossed you get lots of love on M10.
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Good Luck @Scruffylexi !!!
My son got off the waitlist at Groton on A10 a few years ago. He was waitlisted but it was his top choice so I emailed them after M10 to ask what he could do to improve his chances if he were to reapply the next year and they said nothing, that he was a perfect candidate they just didnât have a bed for him. On A10 as he left for school he asked me to call them before I put a deposit at another great school. I called and called with no answer, I finally got a machine and left a message just checking in. Tick tock. Had to put down the deposit at the other school which was fine, he only applied to schools he would be happy at, it is a great school, we knew he would have a great experience. I decorated our house in the schoolâs colors and I went to the school to buy a sweatshirt and on the way home got the call from Groton saying a spot just opened up for him. Groton was his 1st choice school so I had to take the spot even though I felt terrible for accepting the other schoolâs spot (& significant FA). I called the other school right away and they were really nice & understanding about it, they even gave us back our deposit which they did not have to do at all. I take comfort in the fact that some other lucky amazing kid got the call on A10 for the school my son didnât go to. People do get off the waitlist but my advice to all of my kids was only apply to schools you think you would be happy at. The admissions process is so arbitrary (for high school and college) you canât only fall in love with one school. All of these prep schools are unique but amazing, really there are no wrong choices. Good luck!
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I totally agree with @petrinâs comment above; with admissions being so unpredictable, itâs a wise option to only apply to schools which you would be interested in attending.
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Choate 2021 is 12%
time to follow @PhotographerMom WL advice. WL at Loomis, Choate, Lville, and Hotchkiss. :((( Very pleased with NMH acceptance tho!
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Waitlisted at Blair and Deerfield. Do I send a letter to my first priority school?
i really want to write a FC letter to hkiss but iâm not sure itâs gonna do much.
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